My Favourite Things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

Silver white winters that melt into springs

These are a few of my favorite things

Snow season has begun and Mark and I have been blessed with our first sighting of falling snow- awwww. Late last week there was talk that snow was on it's way and on Wednesday it finally arrived. I peeked out the window on Wednesday morning and didn't see anything except for a grey, miserable typicaly English Winter day but when we stepped outside we were greeted with the softest, lightest falling of snow. It was amazing, although the romance of the situation was killed somewhat with Mark's comment of "You look like your hair is covered in dandruff". Nice Mark, really nice.

The snow continued to fall throughout the day and it was beautiful, I'm ashamed to admit that I got more distracted by it than the kids. I'd be standing at the front of the class teaching away when I'd catch sight of fresh snow falling and be completely mesmerised. The students, never missing a moment would all stop, look at me for a nanosecond and then go all feral and run around outside. Even though all my warnings and threats of detentions/ beatings/ decapitations etc. fell on deaf ears which would normally have my blood pressure going through the roof I enjoyed a few moments of seeing them behaving like children. Yes, they attempted to throw snowballs at me but I really liked the innocence of the situation. Maybe my judgement was snowed under (boom, tish) but watching my normally swearing, punching, drug-dealing kids playing in all that pure white snow was really beautiful. I don't know if you've got a brilliant new television show in Australia yet called 'Ugly Betty' which is my current TV obsession but there was such a sweet quote in it that I really related to while watching my students.

Wilhelmina: "Snow is a magical blanket, it hides what's ugly and makes everything beautiful. "

Geez, I'm really beginning to sound like a Desperate Housewives voiceover now. Somebody slap me.

Day 11, 12 & 13- New Years Day (and the following days) Edinburgh, Scotland

Well this is really out of date now and really overdue but I've been sick and lazy. Yes, I'm sick again. I have never been sick as frequently as I have since I moved to England with my average of only 3 - 4 weeks where I'm actually healthy- can't wait to come back to decent weather and kids that aren't so diseased. So here is my last entry for our last school holidays (phew) and only two weeks till our mid-term break.

New Years Day- evil weather still persists and the dogsled racing I wanted to see was cancelled so we stay inside all day watching TV and on the Internet (party on).

Our last two days in Edinburgh (sob) we spent exploring the Old Town, The Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle as well as taking a leisurely stroll up to Arthur's Seat. A lot of damage to be seen in Edinburgh with trees ripped to shreds and fences blown over- the aftermath of those crazy storms was very sobering.

Loved Edinburgh Castle and the Old Town but the highlight was a very impulsive and impromptu hike up to Arthur's Seat after being inspired by a poster on the wall in our B & B. Our first mistake was deciding we could scale the side of the grassy hill after seeing some kids doing it. It was alright to start but it got steeper and the hill got muddier, Mark ended up having a panic attack half way up to the Craigs(but didn't tell me until we reached the top when he had to sit down and felt like throwing up- poor thing). Getting up to the Craigs was the first part, the next stage was the walk/ climb/ mad scramble up to the actual seat which was dangerously windy and slippery. We watched the sun begin to set from the seat (which had no barrier around it- sooo safe) and enjoyed the stunning views before freaking out that we'd have to attempt the descent down in the dark. We were rock climbing like crazy people and found the path at the bottom of the seat before discovering a chained handrail on the opposite side, did we feel dopey then!

On our final day we were due to fly out to Luton to visit the relos but our flight was delayed by several hours and we calculated that we'd arrive in Luton close to midnight. We were absolutely torn as we wanted to visit the relos but did not want to be a problem or a worry for them. We ended up regretfully cancelling our visit and deciding to head back to Hastings. After many hours waiting at the airport we caught our flight which had about 10 people on board, so many people must have been lucky to have gotten earlier flights. To say that the flight was awful would be an understatment- the turbulence was the worst I've ever experienced and I was so scared. Mark sat there silent, pale faced and sweaty next to me while I made sporadic sobbing noises and I thought we were dead for sure. Somehow, we managed to land safely with the Airsickness finally kicking in for poor Mark just before we landed (The sheer terror pumping through my body meant I was alright). It was a pretty hopeless sight with me being unable to do anything but pat him on the back pathetically and try not to think about it, otherwise it would have started off a horrible chain reaction harking back to the days where my sisters and I all got sick with car travel. I feel so sorry for my parents just remembering those bad old days.

Arrived back in Hastings in the wee hours of the morning and I have never been so glad to be back- there's no place like home, there's no place like home.

New Years Eve- Hogmanay, Edinburgh, Scotland

The day started off beautifully and whilst the weather was a bit off; it wasn’t really going to affect our New Years Eve- albeit we expected to come home a bit wet. Anyway as the day progressed it got windier, the rain increasingly heavier and we got lazier about going out to explore Edinburgh for the day. We optimistically thought, "We’ll just rest up during the day so we’re not exhausted for the evening." (which translated to: It’s cold, it’s miserable and we want to delay going out there for as long as possible).

We were meeting the Canadians at 7.30pm and then heading off to the Street Venue for the concert in the gardens (in a lovely venue at the base of Edinburgh Castle). When we left the house we knew that it wasn’t going to be pretty- the weather was so nasty and how could it possibly be get any better for the fireworks to go off. We watched the evening news before we left which updated which NYE parties had been cancelled (all major parties in the North of the UK had been cancelled, except for Edinburgh). Still we soldiered on with part apprehension, part excitement and a lot of genuine stupidity (really we knew deep down what was going to happen).

Met the Canadians and ended up in a pizzeria where we had pizza (duh) and then head off outdoors much to the protests of Steve and his best mate Steve who were wearing thin, flimsy jackets while the rest of us we kitted up with our Arctic best and me in my trusty doona coat. Unbelievably the weather had worsened considerably and were swept down the street. The two Steve's wanted to forget the whole thing and sit in a pub till midnight, but dammit we came all the way to Scotland to experience Hogmanay and we were going to have a good time whether we liked it or not. We continued to be blown down the street, running from doorway to doorway and checking that all members of the crew were all still there and hadn't lifted off Mary Poppins style.

We finally got to the gate of the Garden's which was understandably highly guarded by bouncer type people. There was a bit of a kerfuffle outside the gates and although we couldn't hear what the bouncer people were saying to us due to the noise of the wind, rain and them speaking some weird language (I think some folk refer to this as Scottish)- we understood the body language which unmistakably said "You're not getting in". The two Steve's were already half way up the street walking in the opposite direction, but I wasn't taking no for an answer and I needed to know what was going on. It was pretty chaotic but for a nano-second the wind dropped, a bouncer man leant into me and said "Street party has been cancelled". I stood there flapping my arms stupidly and not wanting to believe it until I saw it for myself but eventually I gave in with Mark coaxing me away ("please leave, he's not coming back, HE'S NOT COMING BACK". Well okay, maybe it didn't happen exactly like that).

As we hurried back the way we came, windswept and rain pouring down our faces I kept sneaking glances back to the gates to see it by some off chance everything was on again and we'd all have a very nice time. Didn't happen, and the only time I really believed what was going on was when we finally got into the pub and half the TV screens in there reiterated what the bouncer man said "Street party is cancelled." The live BBC streamings also drove home the message to me, with the news bulletins stating that wind speeds in Edinburgh were blowing up to 110kph, metal barriers were blowing over and the stage had chunks blowing off it. Ah, that would do it then.

We moved on to another pub called the Three Sisters which was mosh pit packed with about 90% Australians. All of whom were embarassing (of course). I met this one Melbourne girl crying her head off in the courtyard so I went over to talk to her. She was totally wasted and could hardly stand up properly, she'd had some man troubles (email me if you want the gory details) and couldn't remember where she was staying. I felt so sorry for her but I was able to find the name of her hostel in her wallet and gave her directions to a taxi rank. Steph, Lindsay and I went to the bathroom which had a massive line up due to only only cubicle being in use (the other one was hogged by two girls with £5 notes and some suss white powder). We ended up leaving the boys alone for over half an hour and when we got back there was a girl from Mackay with them. I couldn't help but be so smug when I saw the lovely smile disappear from her face at our appearance (3 girls, 3 guys- I'm sure she could do the maths). We had a few polite words before she got bored and cleared off (sorry love, looks like it will be another night camping at the airport for you).

See the tall, blonde guy at the back of the photo?

That's our kiwi mate from the bus- such a small world.

The time passed sooooo slowly as we waited for midnight. The pub got more packed and due to being stone-cold sober I became paranoid of being involved in a bar brawl or a stampede and I couldn't wait to leave (I'd been sick with a nasty cold since France and I needed drugs). Midnight came and everyone poured outside to see the pathetic little stream of fireworks pouring off the roof of the pub and two drunk, dero Australians tried to pash me when Mark turned his back (tried, but failed) Yay. It was such an anti-climax since we'd hyped it all up so much (we were going to be front row at the Robbie Williams/ Pet Shop Boys performance- wahhhhh). Oh well, at least this will be a NYE we'll never forget.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Link to Newspaper article:
http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,20997100-2,00.html

Night-A-Fore in Scotland

My last blog entry was too massive that it wouldn't allow me to add any photos so here they are:

The spiral staircase- poor Mark

I love the sound of bagpipes in the morning

Day 8 & 9 The Night-A-Fore, Edinburgh, Scotland

When we boarded the coach we were told by the drivers that there would be no "comfort stops" as there was only 9 hours to drive from Dover to Edinburgh and if the bus wasn't back in Scotland by 4.30am the drivers got fined. I was dreading having to use the scary toilet on the bus (I made the mistake of using it once before and it just kept on filling up with water with every flush- bad, bad news). Our normally lovely Scottish drivers went all psycho terriost from the movie Speed on us (There is a bomb on the bus, Nobody Gets off the bus, The bus does not drop below 50mph, I repeat NOBODY gets off the bus).

They drove like maniacs along the road, overtaking cars and trucks and only pulling over to swap drivers and occassionally dump someone at their destination (motor still running, luggage and people chucked out the door unceremoniously).

Many boring, sleepless hours pass (as they would say in the movie Team America "We need a Montage...")

Soon it is our turn to be turfed out on the side of the road and we get out in freezing temperature in Edinburgh at the charming hour of 4.20am and as soon as I got off the bus I realised I desperately needed to go to the bathroom (Welcome to Scotland) . We were both pretty out of it and totally unable to get our bearings while looking a dodgy map. It was hard enough just trying to hold onto it in the wind. We walked with another couple to the bus depot (which ended up being locked up like a vault). So we said our goodbyes and tried to figure out what we were going to do with ourselves for the 3 hours before we could check in to our B& B. It seemed a million years ago that we had found the address of a 24 hour internet cafe when we were first planning our trip. So we headed there with sleepy eyes, a mission in our minds and very full bladders.

We arrived at the 24 hour internet cafe only to find it.... CLOSED! Yes closed. I honestly felt like crying, I was hungry, tired and so frustrated. McDonalds and the train station were also closed which was really the last straw for me. In a moment of desperation I suggested we catch a taxi to the airport and Mark (always the pacifist and knowing I was seconds away from chucking a massive tantrum that would rival those of even our worst kids at school) agreed with me. Getting into the back of the taxi was pure bliss and getting into the terminal even more so, our adventure awaits. Not bad for a £15 taxi ride.

I hightailed it to the bathroom leaving Mark with our luggage and I couldn't help notice two semi-clad girls in the bathrooms "showering" themselves with the water from the handbasins and then drying themselves with the hand dryers. Their conversation was so loud and animated I couldn't help but overhear their conversation. Do you remember me whinging about how I hadn't met any other Australians and going on about how I missed hearing an Australian accent? Well, at that very moment all those thoughts drifted (actually exploded) away. The two girls were Australian, and this is how their conversation panned out:

GIRL 1: Ya know, I can't believe how many of us there are here.

GIRL 2: I knooooow, ha, ha ha, soooo many of us.
GIRL 1: I thought we'd be the only ones here. Who knew the hostels would be so packed.
GIRL 2: I knoooow, ha, ha, ha.
GIRL 1: All Aussies and kiwis too.
GIRL 2: I knoooow, ha, ha, ha.

I left the bathroom not quite understanding what that brains trust had been talking about, but as I met Mark, sat down and looked around I realised. The airport was full of people and not just people waiting for flights but people passed out over the chairs and the floor. They had massive backpacks next to them and sleeping bags draped over them- they were camping here. Oh how embarassing! I felt dirty at being possibly associated with people like that and Australians really don't have a great reputation in the U.K. so I didn't want to be painted with the same brush. I sat there stewing in my thoughts, mumbling darkly and giving all the sleeping Aussies dirty looks while consuming a pre-packaged sandwich. Fortunately being lost in my own angry internal monologue time passed quickly and before long it was time to catch a bus back into town and head to our B & B.

It was well past 7am before we left and still pitch black, the airport bus only had one other passenger, a very friendly kiwi. While we sat there wrapped up like eskimos, he staggered onto the bus wearing only a t-shirt and jeans. Once again we were awed by the anti-freeze properties of alcohol. He then preceeded to go through his wallet (whilst complaining that some girl took advantage of him and stole all his Irish money) and explain to us the wonders of Hogsmanay. "It's choice!" We said good bye to our new self appointed tour guide and walked to our B&B. At last we could finally get some decent sleep in a proper bed. There was only one last hurdle, our room was on the fourth floor! So guess who gets to carry over 20 kilos of bag up a narrow winding staircase- not me!

Many hours sleeping pass ("We need a montage..." okay maybe not)

When we finally arise from our slumber we head out and explore the city, gorgeous clear blue sky and sunshine greet us and I fall in love with Edinburgh. What I say next may really offend some people but in my opinion London is Edinburgh's poor cousin. Such a stunning city with beautiful buildings, gardens and great shopping the streets are so clean and the people are lovely. When it got dark we watched the marching pipe band parade which celebrated the night before New Years Eve (any excuse for a party these Scots) and looked at the various street theatre performances and concerts. It was such a great, happy atmosphere watching people dancing The Highland Fling in the streets (and c'mon what girl can resist a man in a kilt).

When the street got to packed we walked down to the main street and had a look at all the amusements, rode the ferris wheel and even went ice-skating (I was so proud that I didn't fall over once). It was a perfect first evening in Scotland.

Day 7 & 8 - The Journey Back, France.

Grudgingly packed all our possessions for our journey back to the U.K. and said goodbye to our German speaking TV (we watched Indiana Jones, Serendipity, Forrest Gump, Charmed, Die Hard and Goldeneye all in badly dubbed German). I was not looking forward to the long, boring journey back.

Several hours and truck stops later we arrived in Metz, France which sounds exciting except that the hotel was in the middle of nowhere and it was late (I have a strange feeling of dejavu). We ate our meal at the hotel restaurant which we thought was alright but several people ended up getting food poisoning and even more refused to pay. Just goes to show what food connoisseurs we are hey?

After leaving the hotel the next morning we drove on to Calais to the ferry port. We arrived in Calais with time to spare so we stopped off at a huge French shopping centre. Oh. My. I was in love, IN LOVE. I felt like doing a Pope and kissing the ground and I only barely refrained from openly weeping tears of joy. It was just like Westfield Parramatta except without the hoods. Unfortunately we only had an hour and a half and we had to eat too (I would have given that up too before thinking better of it). We raced around to several shops and were ecstatic to find my clothing size *happy dance*.

When the time was up I resentfully dragged myself out of the shopping centre (don’t worry, I’ll never forget you, you’ll always have a place in my heart). Back on the coach we headed off again to what I thought was going to be the ferry Port. You can imagine my surprise when we pulled up outside a large warehouse. My surprise soon turned to livid anger when I noticed that we were going to spend the next hour looking inside liquor shop. I was so mad that I was deprived of spending time with my new love to buy booze. I was even more furious because I had lost my beanie at the shopping centre and couldn’t get it back. Most of the other passengers looked like they were in heaven dragging back trolleys laden with cheap alcohol (I admit it was indecently cheap) while I looked like a sullen, crazy person muttering to myself. I’m TOTALLY over it now, DO YOU HEAR ME? I’M OVER IT.

Got to the Ferry Port and onto the ferry and had a gut churning journey back to Dover (whoever said that you don't feel the motion on those big cruise liners needs their heads checked). After that ferry trip I was almost glad to get back to the coach back to Scotland…Almost.

Green is not your colour...

Day 6- Innsbruck, Austria

Well back on the coach again and off to Innsbruck, the biggest of the cities we visited in Austria. We had another guided tour and this time the tour guide was much more interesting although difficult to understand. Not my favourite city but still I really enjoyed the visit to the tomb of Emperor Maximilian. Imagine a massive marble sarcophagus all carved in relief with scenes depicting famous victories. On top of the sarcophagus is a bronze statue of a knight praying to God and flanked by an angel. On either side of the sarcophagus in two lines are more bronze statues depicting all the kingdoms, which made up the empire, including King Arthur of England. All of which is set inside a massive church. (I think he may have had a slight insecurity problem).

Also on the agenda was of course the Christmas market, which we strolled around eating Giant Donuts (Tropfkrapfen), Potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer) and German Sausages. What a hard life we have.

The journey back to the hotel involved a stop at the 1000 year old town of Rattenberg, it was right on the river and was really beautiful. The whole village was dedicated to glass and crystal making with all the shops flogging their wares. Unfortunately it was getting quite dark and the temperature was dropping even further so most people made a hasty retreat towards the coach well before the time was over.

Day 5- Boxing Day, Brixen, Italy

This was the first morning that I didn’t wake up startled with the sound of church bells ringing in my ears, which usually left me sitting bolt upright in bed and feeling completely disorientated. While I enjoyed not waking up stressed out with high blood pressure this caused a slight problem in another way. We were called up in the morning with a telephone call from the coach driver saying that the rest of the group were on the bus waiting for us to leave. Luckily all the practice we got running to school in the morning meant we only were 10 minutes late. Still we had to do the walk of shame up the aisle of the coach with all the old people jeering at us (sod off, we need more than 4 hours of sleep a night).

Brixen Cathedral

I still can’t get me head around how easily you can move from country to country and today we headed off to Italian city of Brixen or Bressanone as it is known by the Italians. We crossed the Europa Bridge across the Brenner Pass with stunning views of mountains covered in snow. Really breathtaking stuff, makes a girl want to break out in song- "The hills are alive with the….."

Europa Brucke (Bridge)

The weather was treating us very well and although it was extremely cold it was a gorgeous sunny day. We had the whole day to explore the town for ourselves and after looking at the Christmas markets (I can never tire of these) we did what any self-respecting tourist should do in Italy…. order pizza. This proved to be a harder exercise than first realised. We managed to find ourselves in a little pizzeria that was filled with locals and NOT tourists. This was a total accident and meant that we couldn’t read the menu which was written in both Italian and German. We were doing fine with the pizza (just pointed randomly at the menu) but the task of ordering garlic bread was pure comedy. The poor waitress was trying to hard to understand the word "garlic" and kept helpfully offering suggestions like pasta, cheese and coffee while we mimed and looked at her stupidly. We ended up ordering what turned out to be Spinach Cannelloni. I realised then that the only Italian I know ("Is Dom, Is Good") wasn’t going to get me very far.

After polishing off our randomly chosen pizza (which was covered in flaming hot green whole chillies) and cannelloni. We set off to explore the town to look at more churches, winding cobbled streets and historic buildings. We also strolled along the river and walked up a hill to look at the view over the town. It was such a beautiful little town and it was very refreshing to discover little gems ourselves and not have a guide point them out. Looking back over our holiday I would have to say that this was my favourite place we’ve been too so far in Europe.

Day 4- Christmas Day, Austria

Today technically began with the Midnight Mass, which saw us all packed into the church next door. It was a bit meaningless though not knowing what was going on and not understanding any of the words. To make matters worse we couldn't even see what was happening. Still the music was nice, sung by a choir and played by a brass band. We were quite glad to get back to warm beds.

Still we had to get up early again and we were off to Fugen for our horse drawn carriage ride through the mist. It sounds quite nice but really we were actually glad to get back on the coach while we could still count to ten on our toes. Thankfully though by the time we arrived at our next stop the sun had come out and it turned into a beautiful day. Blue skies framed the Austrian Alps as we climbed aboard the Alpine steam train to Myrhoffen, complete with a very smiling Austrian Accordionist. Although most of the snow was at the top of the mountains the frost was thick enough to give these Australians their first ever White Christmas.

Having spent the afternoon throwing crumbly snowballs at each other and making snow angels in the frost it was quite sad to have to get back on the coach. However the ride back to Worgl featured one of the true highlights of the trip, a visit to "Souvenir Linda." Picture a three story souvenir shop in the middle of a village so small that there wasn't any other shops in the village. Before we were allowed of the bus we were introduced to "Souvenir Linda" a very smiley Austrian lady who gave us all chocolate and led us like the pied piper downstairs to taste the many varieties of Schnapps and Liquers on offer. We managed to escape out to the crisp fresh air of the village but many of our other coach travellers were ensnared, clambouring back onto the bus with red cheeks and bags of clinking Tyrolean goodies.

That night we had a night of traditional Tyrolean entertainment. A family of lederhosen wearing Austrians who sang, danced, yodelled, chopped wood and slapped each others’ bums in time to the accordion music. They performed music with spoons, bells, lanterns and hammers and sang classic Austrian songs like "Green Mountain," "Mountain Green", "Green Valley" and "Valley in the Green Mountains". (I think the singer might have run out of English words.) Not to mention the Tyrolean anthem "Ein Brose" which translates into "A beer", which of course has to be sung with a beer in your right hand.

Despite being a wonderful day, it still didn't feel like Christmas without our families around.

Day 3- Christmas Eve, Salzburg, Austria

Were awoken this morning at the absolutely indecent hour of 5.45am by the ringing of Church bells (which is opposite the hotel). The bells were relentless, ringing away happily every 15 minutes making the Catholic neighbourhood feel guilty for being in bed and not at Mass. Talk about no rest for the wicked. Anyway, we had to get of bed early anyway to get on the coach for our visit to Salzburg (of Sound of Music and Mozart fame).

The journey to Salzburg involved driving through Austria then into Germany and then back into Austria again (alrighty then). Considering I managed to spend yesterday sleeping most of the way through Belgium, unconscious throughout the Netherlands and waking up halfway through Germany I convinced myself I’d make a real effort to stay awake and enjoy the scenery. Didn’t happen. I once again slept most of the journey. Good work Karen.

I was all drowsy when we got off the bus but the –2ºC temperature woke me up quick smart. We followed our dodgy guide around for a while (couldn’t really understand what he was saying) and then were left to explore for the day. I was so excited to see the sights and even more importantly, check out the Christmas markets. The markets did not disappoint, beautiful Christmas decorations adorned the stalls but the price. Yikes!!! I’m not spending ₤30 ($75) on a Christmas bauble, even if they are stunning. One thing we also fell in love with was Gluhwein (hot mulled wine). Oh my, this was so delicious. In England the mulled wine is just red wine heated up in a saucepan but these Europeans have it down to a fine art. It was spicy with cinnamon and all creamy and frothy on top and the perfect way to warm up. Sooooo Good. Strangely, people were also giving mugs of the stuff to their children- hmmm, alcoholic baby that’s a good look.


Luckily for my bank balance, most of the shops were closed and it gave me the opportunity to look around at the buildings without the errrrr ‘distractions’. The streets were by my standards very busy but apparently they were quiet compared to a normal day. So it was nice to see the city without the usual crowds (I think the locals are a wee bit smarter than the tourists and actually stay inside during sub-zero temperature).

We saw the convent where Maria VonTrapp trained and visited Salzburg Cathedral (Mozart was baptised here). I have never seen anything like it! It was an incredible sight and was nothing like the pictures I’ve seen in art textbooks. It was a feast to the eyes and everywhere you looked was something more beautiful than the last. I really can’t begin to explain how special it was and I could upload hundreds of photos and still not be able to convey what it was like to see in person.

One of the many other highlights was visiting St. Peter’s cemetery (you know the one where Julie Andrews and Co. are all running around hiding from the Nazi’s in the movie). It was really lovely and looked very picturesque with all the frost clinging to the leaves and flowers. After visiting several churches (honestly they’re beginning to bleed all in to one humongous church) we walked the steep, frosty incline to the fortress. Whilst having stunning views (despite the copious amounts of thick fog) I was pretty tired and a little overwhelmed by all we had seen so I was glad to get back on the coach for the journey home…. To get more sleep

Day 1 & 2- France, Belgium and Austria

Back from our holiday now and busily sorting out all our school stuff, washing all the dirty laundry and trying to recall what we've been doing over the past couple of weeks. So updates will be appearing over the next few days.

This is an entry I wrote after a couple of days of travel:

Well here we are in Austria, with no TV and no internet! I should clarify. We do actually have a TV but it keeps speaking to us in German. Perhaps we should contact the British consulate and ask for a translator. Thankfully four years of learning German have paid off. I can pick out words like Ja, Nein, Jagermeister and Hans Chistian Anderson. Which should come in handy if we ever end up in an alcoholic children's book.

The ferry and coach journey was long and boring but at least we managed to catch up on some well needed z's.(See included picture). The monotomy was lightened though by our drivers who talk to us in what they refer to as 'High Jock.'(This is as close as the Scottish ever get to talking English). We find it helps to smile and nod a lot.

Crashed out on the Ferry

Last night we stayed in Belgium but we arrived close to midnight and the hotel was in the middle of nowhere and opposite the NATO headquarters so it wasn't really explorer friendly (I think Karen had fantasies of exploring Brussels before we left). We are now staying at the lovely Schachtnerhof hotel in the cute little Austrian town of Worgl. At least we think it is quite cute. Our late night stroll through the town turned into a frenzied retreat back to the warmth of the hotel. It's freezing here! Dinner was good though. A nice change from the truck stops and Ferry diner that we've been eating at so far. We had Schnitzel und Sauerkraut (Just to reinforce a few stereotypes.)

Room with a View- Snow capped mountains